Brain Area for Ticklish Laughter Found

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A laugh that prompts you to cry out, "That tickles!" activates
different brain areas than a laugh not provoked by tickling, a
new study from Germany suggests.

In the study, about 30 men and women in their 20s were tickled
for science — they had their feet tickled by a friend or partner
while their brains were scanned in a functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. Separately, participants were
asked to
produce a laugh voluntarily (not in response to a joke)
inside an fMRI machine, which measures blood flow to different
areas of the brain to provide a real-time map of brain activity.

Both ticklish laughter and voluntary laughter activated the
Rolandic operculum brain region, which is located in the primary
sensory-motor cortex and is involved in movements of the face;
both laughter types were also linked to activity in brain regions
involved in vocal emotional reactions, such as crying.

However, only ticklish laughter activated the hypothalamus, a
part of the brain involved in regulating many functions,
including visceral reactions, the researchers said. [ Which
Animals Are Ticklish? ]

Ticklish laughter also activated parts of the brain thought to be
involved in anticipation of pain, which supports the idea that
people who are tickled react defensively, the researchers said.

Ticklish laughter appeared to activate the same brain networks
seen in earlier studies of
humorous laughter. However, humorous laughter also activates
an area of the brain involved in "higher order" functions, as
well as a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, which
is thought to be part of the brain's "pleasure center." Ticklish
laughter did not activate these areas.

The results, which will be detailed in the June issue of the
journal Cerebral Cortex, confirm the idea that ticklish laughter
is a "building block" of humorous laughter — an idea first
proposed by Charles Darwin and Ewald Hecker in the late 1800s,
the researchers noted.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of
Greifswald in Germany, and researchers at the University of
Fribourg and University of Basel in Switzerland.